From Misery Comes Unexpected Joy
by Child-of-the-Dawn
Summary: Based of an Roleplay with the wonderful Jestana. Minerva's upset and Albus is worried. With the help of an old picture and two friends, will they come together? (PAdfoort lives, bTW)


Based of a RP me and Jestana did b/c I was bored out of my mind. Came out rather well.  
  
I did change a few lines to make it a bit different from Jestana's. What am I saying? I did a ton of stuff to it.....long it is now.  
  
POST-OotP  
  
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From Misery Comes Unexpected Joy  
  
The flickering candles on the wide corridor illuminated a man, a certain headmaster   
  
to be exact, as he purposefuly strolled into the school's library in search of his Deputy.   
  
His eyes scanned the rows of empty seats with deep concern.  
  
Minerva hadn't been seen for three hours, and Dumbledore was beginning to worry. But he'd   
  
known her as a student, and he knew exactly where she'd be; a nook in the farthest room of  
  
the library had been hers since her second year as a student.  
  
Surely enough, there she was, in her favorite navy blue chair beside a small fireplace   
  
where flames roared in a comforting sort of way.  
  
Her eyes though, were not usual. Instead of her piercing gaze, a melencholy look was set   
  
behind her glasses. He stood there,  
  
staring at her unusual appearance until she looked up with a half-smile.  
  
" Oh, hello Albus.", Minerva said. He smiled warmly at her, but the smile didn't reach  
  
his eyes, which he knew she could interpret as holding worry.  
  
  
  
" Hello, Minerva." Minerva quickly looked back down at the leather bound book in her   
  
lap, giving such a tiny sigh that most people wouldn't have picked it up. But Albus   
  
Dumbledore wasn't most people. He quickly knelt next to her.  
  
" Is there something wrong, my dear?" Minerva only smiled sadly, gesturing the the   
  
large book; a photo album.  
  
" Just....thinking Albus..." Dumbledore's heart gave a dull ache; something was   
  
definitly wrong with the Transfiguration Professor. He pulled up another  
  
armchair and sat beside her, looking down at the many pictures covering the page.  
  
" About what, Minerva?" Slowly, her hand moved from the book's edge to a picture at the  
  
bottom right. Dumbledore looked closer, and found a smile fromthe memory. This particular  
  
photo had been taken Valentine's day one year. Sirius Black stood around a corner with   
  
Remus and James, pointing his wand at a younger Dumbledore, who was walking with Minerva   
  
and Lily Evans to dinner. The two women were laughing along with Remus. The picture-  
  
Dumbledore was grinning, stroking his now pink and red beard.  
  
"You remember that?" She said softly. He could only chuckle, picturing the delight of   
  
his former students that day. It had, to him, been well worth having a pink beard for   
  
twenty-four hours just to hear the rare laughter of his beloved students.  
  
" Yes, indeed"  
  
" Lily laughed herself hoarse..........." Another sad smiled graced her features, then  
  
faded. Dumbledore grinned to himself.  
  
" So did James and Remus." He was looking over the other pictures when he heared her  
  
distinctly sob.  
  
" Gods, I miss those three..." He looked up, rather startled by her sob more than the  
  
shakiness of her voice. Her eyes we wet looking and she now wore a look of agonizing   
  
sadness.  
  
" It's ok to cry, Minerva.", He said, putting an arm around her sholders.  
  
" Why again...?!?!", she sobbed, " Why my little lions??!?" He winced inwardly at her  
  
despairing tone. This was so unlike her, his strong pillar of support.  
  
Hesistating, Dumbledore slowly put his other arm around her, hugging her tightly.  
  
" I really couldn't say, Minerva." Mcgonagall, now allowing a few tears, lay her head   
  
on his sholders, drawing strength from his soothing presence. He gently rubbed her back in  
  
a comforting sort of way, her sadness seeming to engulf him.  
  
" Albus...I-I dont want to lose anyone else...my heart...wont take it.." His response  
  
was to hold her even more tightly than before. The next time he spoke, it was softly, with  
  
much care.  
  
" We don't have much of a choice, Minerva."  
  
" I'll die....one more..and I..." Her sobbing increased," and....." Minerva put her   
  
sleeve to her eyes, desperatly trying to control herself. But Dumbledore simply stared.  
  
One more....and she'd.... Somehow, he found his voice.  
  
" And what, my dear?", he said calmly, holding out his handkerchief to her. She took it  
  
gratefully, but her tears only slowed in their procession down her face.  
  
" I-I'm sorry Albus...I..I shouldnt act like this.....not now, when Harry hurts so much   
  
more...I'm..I'm sorry." Resolutely, she stood to leave; she had too, or else things she'd  
  
kept secret would come out.  
  
You've a right to, Minerva. Please, Minerva. You need to talk this out!" He tried to stop  
  
her, barely getting a grip on her sholder.  
  
" No.....I can't. I-I cant talk about this." He reached forward, now grasping her hand  
  
in his. He stood beside her, observing the complete lack of contentment she usually wore.  
  
" You should at least let all your tears go." Bitterly, she smiled, shaking her head.  
  
" If I do, I'll think of losing you....and I'd lose it completly." Minerva bit her lip  
  
to keep the tears at bay, which only proved to agitate her upset condition further.   
  
Dumbledore gave her hand a reasuring sqeeze, even as his eyes reflected his suprise at her  
  
response.  
  
" Why would losing me cause you so much pain? Not that I'd want to leave anytime soon."  
  
She turned her head, giving him a look that read ' why? Why do you think, pal?' She even  
  
gave a true smile.  
  
" Why?...Why wouldn't it???", She was truely suprised," Gods, If you died....I'd not go   
  
on..." Minerva's eyes grew wide as she covered her mouth with one hand. She'd done it now.  
  
  
  
Dumbledore, meanwhile, was staring at her with an odd look in his eyes, speachless for a  
  
moment.  
  
"What are you saying, Minerva?" Quickly moving her wrist, Minerva freed her hand from  
  
his still strong grasp, backing up from him.  
  
" I..." But Albus Dumbledore was not one to give up, so he reached forward again, this  
  
time holding her hand with both of his.  
  
" Minerva, please don't run." She stopped. The look in his eyes was painful to see for  
  
Minerva, who had never made the sad, almost panicked look appear in his eyes.  
  
" No. I..." She looked to his hands, holding her small one, then back to him, pleading  
  
to be let go. He shook his head, but drops her hand as his own hold her in place.  
  
" No, I can't let you go. Please, Minerva....We need to discuss this.." This time,   
  
Minerva visibly cringes at his tone, torn apart by the sound of helplessness. Finally, she  
  
turns to face him, her sobs less vocal than before.  
  
" If you died....I wouldn't be far behind..." Gently, she hugged her truest friend,   
  
finally crying like everyone else would.  
  
' I wouldn't be far behind...' Dumbledore let himself shed a tear at that..would she  
  
really? Just because of him? He hugged her back, calming in her arms, just as he had so  
  
often in earlier days.  
  
  
  
"Oh, Minerva, if I'd known you felt that way..."   
  
" I'mscared Albus, scared for the first time since Grindewald." He closed his eyes,  
  
simply holding her. After a breath, he spoke again.  
  
"When I heard you had been hit by four Stunners, right in your chest, it hurt so much.",  
  
He stopped, then continued in a whisper,"I was so afraid I was going to lose you." She  
  
looked up, startled by the tenderness in his voice," And I couldn't bear the thought."  
  
With that, he kissed her on top of the head, then looked back to her brown eyes, his own  
  
regaining some it their sparkle. Minerva was stammering.  
  
  
  
"Albus...you........." She gaped, realizing the direction they were going in. He only   
  
smiled and nodded.  
  
"Yes, Minerva?" A small laugh escaped her lips, a sound that was music to his ears.  
  
  
  
"you...I love you...please be here, please survive the war!!" All this she said in a   
  
hurry, barely drawing breath in between words.  
  
" For me. for our 'children'.." He smiled down at her.  
  
" I love you, too, Minerva." Her response was to laugh and cry all at once.  
  
  
  
" For you?", he said plainly," I will live." A true smile spread across Minerva's face.  
  
When she spoke, every word screamed her feelings.  
  
" And for you, so will I."  
  
" Good." Hw said, grinning like a schoolboy who found out it was too cold to be in   
  
potions for a week. He put two fingers under her chin, and leaned forward to kiss her.  
  
(((A/N from Jestana:(sheesh! every time I RP these two, they kiss!))). She pulled back  
  
slowly, redder than the hair on a Weasley.  
  
" That wasn't so bad, now, was it?" He said, still looking quite dazed himself.  
  
" No...only took about fifty-five years.", Minerva replied with her sarcastic  
  
tone. He laughed heartily, seeming to think it a grand joke.  
  
" That long, my dear?" She mumbled something into his robes that he didn't quite pick  
  
up. When she looked back up again, she frowned slightly at the long-forgotten photo album  
  
in the chair.  
  
" What is it?"  
  
" That trickster...."  
  
" Who?" He said, bewildered.  
  
" Look at the bottom Albus" She pointed to a pic of Sirius grinning like the madman  
  
they knew he'd always been. Dumbledore followed her motion to the picture, while Minerva  
  
began to laugh. It read:  
  
' Marauders strike again'  
  
' Good job Headmaster!'  
  
'signed, Padfoot'  
  
Dumbledore chuckled. So Sirius had had one more trick up his sleeve. Dumbledore smiled  
  
gently back down at her. His eyes flashed with a grin as he pulled a striped paper bag  
  
from a pocket. Minerva gave a weary sigh at the sight of the familiar bag.  
  
" Would you like a lemon drop, my dear?", He said, reaching in for one.  
  
" hm? er....I suppose so....", she said, now finally free of her tears. Dumbledore  
  
smiled again, holding the lemon flavored confection out to her (A/N: Lemon...*muffled  
  
laughter*) Rather reluctantly, Minerva took it, putting it in her mouth slowly, as if  
  
eating a Weasley Candy.  
  
" my.... rather...good...." He chuckled, amusement lighing up his eyes.  
  
" Would you like another?" This time, Minerva looked at him oddly, but sighed and  
  
agreed.  
  
" ok Albus..." He held another out, but as she tried to take it, he pulled it away.  
  
" No, I'm going to feed you." A child-like expression came over his features, adding  
  
to the illusion that he was much younger. And as expected by the older wizard, Minerva  
  
turned a wonderful shade of red.  
  
" Allll-bus...", she tried to say in protest, but her companion had already popped the  
  
sugery confection in her mouth.  
  
" That wasen't so bad either, was it?" Dumbledore said as he watched his Deputy close  
  
her eyes contentedly. If she had been a cat at the time, he knew she would have been   
  
purring.  
  
" No." Wiping away the dried tears, she reached in to the bag and had it in his mouth  
  
before he could say anything. Her laugh rang through the library at the stunned/ amused  
  
look of his. His smile, though, faded when he looked oner her sholder.  
  
" Oh, my. I do believe we've been caught, my dear." Slowly, Minerva turned to greet  
  
Umina Pince, who was looking rather ticked already.  
  
" Oh no...." Dumbledore lowered his head to whisper softly in her ear.  
  
" Perhaps we should continue this conversation in my study?"  
  
" Yes......very quickly.." Grabbing his hand, Minerva attepted to run past Umina, who,   
  
by now, was furious," Hurry!" Halfway to the door, the largest and heaviest books began  
  
to rain dow on the couple.  
  
" ouch....oh....now....ick..." She cried, after the English-Latin Dictionary had smacked  
  
her in the head twice.  
  
" Just run, Minerva!" She did, becoming her alter ego and running as fast as four paws  
  
can take a cat. Dumbledore immediatly transformed into an lovely owl and followed. Once   
  
they cleared the hall, Minerva began taking ragged breath while trying to laugh.   
  
" Close.....very close...." He smiled, pulling her close in his arms. She returned the   
  
smile willingly, an act that took his breath away  
  
" You're beautiful when you smile, my dear." He grinned once more at her blush, then  
  
gently kissed her again.  
  
" My....you are quite the kisser...:  
  
" I'm glad you think so. He took her hand and gave it a very Victorian-ish kiss. He  
  
stared at her face again, mesmerized by the smile, unitl his deputy's face went pale.  
  
Quickly, he turned around to see non other than Harry Potter.  
  
" Oh dear." He said.  
  
" oh dear....Harry, good...um goodevening", Minerva said rather fast. Meanwhile,   
  
Dumbledore's cheeks grew red.  
  
  
  
"Yes, good evening.", he said, mentally laughing at Harry's dinner-plate sized eyes.  
  
Beside him, Minerva blushed scarlet.  
  
" I think we'd better find somewhere more private, Minerva.", He said as Harry walked  
  
away with a smile on his face, mumbling to himself. Minerva nodded a yes and led him into  
  
her office. Once inside, she turned to him with a smile on her face and her hand in his.  
  
" Did you hear him?"  
  
" Yes, I did.", he replied, kissing her forehead lightly.  
  
" And I quote:' I knew it, I knew it, I knew it'.." A small giggle escaped her lips,   
  
which he found alltogether enchanting.  
  
" Gods....are we that obvious?"  
  
" I suppose so. " But as he tried to kiss her again, she broke into laughter.  
  
" Is no where private? Hello Severus...." For behind him was the potions master in a  
  
state of shock. Dumbledore sighed, but turned and smiled anyway  
  
" Yes, hello." Slowly, and to the amazement of both, the younger man smiled back, a true  
  
smile neither had seen before. All of a sudden, it seemed as if a dam broke.  
  
"It about DAMN TIME!" ( no pun intended), shouted Severus, which got the older people  
  
to laugh. The poor guy must have been waiting to get that out for years.  
  
" my god, I thought I'd never see it..." With that, Severus calmly walked away.  
  
" I suppose we HAVE been rather obvious my dear," he said with a wink," Perhaps we   
  
should go to my study after all?"  
  
" I suppose..."  
  
" Unless you ENJOY being caught by students and staff..." She shook her head as she   
  
exited her office arm-in-arm with him, a gentle smile on her face. But she sighed deeply  
  
the next moment.  
  
" Oh, for Merlin's sake!"  
  
" What is it now, my dear?" Her finger pointed in front if them, at most of the students  
  
cheering wildly.  
  
" That" Dumbledore smiled down at her, suddenly taken with an idea.  
  
  
  
" Might as well give them a show." With that, he took her in his arms and kissed her   
  
soundly. Hogwarts shook with the force of the cheering, while a certain Potions Master  
  
and teenager stood in back.  
  
*this part added because I got inspired!*  
  
" Thank you Professor. I wouldn't of noticed that album's message alone.."  
  
" I still don't believe this.............." 


End file.
